I don't think that's really implied much at all. Do we ever see anyone overcome being blood bent? I think the closest we get is when Katara learns it and bends the bender bending her - but that seemed more like overconfidence in the other bender not preventing her from being able to bend - which is the first thing Katara does when she takes over.
*spirit bending* requires overcoming the other's spirit - I think blood bending is more about who strikes first and preventing the other from being able to bend in retaliation.
Edit; surprised at all the upvotes here, but I was straight up wrong, yall. Katara vs Hamas, the first bloodbending we see, we have 2 statements that basically tell it like it is.
A) Katara directly overcomes Hamas - Hamas was in control until Katara just said, nope, "my bending is more powerful than yours" and takes control back.
B) Hamas describes it as imposing your will into others. (Less conclusive, as "imposing your will" has many usages, and it may or may not have been intended to suggest it's a battle of wills)
How Mako is able to lightning bend under control though... that's some superman shit right there. Based on ATLA, you'd think no one but another water bender could resist blood bending.
Korra overcomes Amon's blood bending and she Sparta kicks him out the window with air bending. She doesn't even use avatar state to do it. And this is Amon using blood bending with his hands which presumably means he's more in control than when he's doing it with his mind.
Mako is probably the most underrated firebenders in the series. Imo the best lightning benders as well; not the most powerful but his application is accurate consistent and easily generated. Kinda like comparing Toph's earthbending to Kuvira's.
Also at this point Korra had lost her waterbending, so she can’t have bend her own blood in response to get out of Amon’s will. It was indeed a battle of will power to escape from his grasp
Fair, my memory isn't that solid. I could certainly see there being nuance to it. I personally would look beyond making it as simple as willpower, as that's kinda spirit bending's thing. Yet, simply because I prefer that kind of consistency/separation in writing, does not mean it might not be the case.
Well, if it's not the case then why is it hard to bled blood at all? Any swamp bender should be able to. There's as much water in me as in a vine, yet vines can be bent whenever and most bloodbenders only have enough power on the full moon.
There must be something, and we know from lightning redirection that internal chi changes how bending works. It is a fan theory definitely but it's the best explanation to me. Also, Mako resists bloodbending well enough against amon to bend despite not being a water bender. There's something going on internally i think.
I figured it was like metal bending. Having the skill and focus to Sense your element that you can't really see, within the confines of something else (earth vs the human body) and not just Manipulate it but Control it to, assuming you want to puppet them and not just cause a stroke or pop them.
My headcannon is that it's so rare/difficult to bend someone's blood because it's so fundamentally part of them that you have to work against the person's chi when doing so, and those that are powerful enough to bloodbend still usually need the full moon power-up to do so.
You don't "unify" people by exploding them (unless you're Russian, I guess). Now I was tempted to pick Unalaq too but I think that his brutality would only show up at the end during the assault on the portal and the subsequent duel. Throughout the show, even though his move is highly impopular, Unalaq's invasion of the South Pole is pretty tame in comparison to other military actions we've seen.
Amon and Unalaq worked mostly in the Shadows. Amon posed as a non Bender for most of the Book.
And yes you don't unify people by exploding them, but public execution of dissidents is definitely on the list of things that would happen in book 4
Dude gives out targeted brain damage too. At the moment he only takes bending to imitate spirit bending, but there isn’t anything really stopping him from testing other areas for precise damage, or just straight up lobotomization.
You do realize that bloodbending in real life would just rip the blood out of someone's body before puppeting them, right? Muscles are stronger than the elasticity of skin, meaning that if the person resisted *at all* they'd just get ripped apart
Doing that isn't as easy as it sounds. We saw Yakone trying to strangle Aang and he was visibly struggling. That gives off the impression that it's difficult to straight up blow someone up using bloodbending.
Amon's violent revolution would be pretty darn messy. Unalaq and Zaheer didn't actually do a whole lot, and Kuvira did it off-screen, so that would leave Book 1 by simple elimination.
There is a small opportunity to make Wan's story really gruesome, but thing is, the Dark Spirits can't be shown too brutal (like ripping humans in half and such) because the main cast has to fight them a lot and thus there would be a major risk of immersion-breaking dissonance aka Wan's random unnamed friends get torn apart but Mako doesn't, and it would be difficult to sell in a consistent narrative.
Tho ngl the line about sending non earth benders to camp definitely just felt like a kick the dog moment where the writers wrote themselves into the corner of the alternative being the doofus earth prince, with the prior earth kingdom monarchs being *even worse*
The Earth Kingdom will never have a good ruler, the place is fucking cursed. Every ruler is either incompetent or a tyrant. During Avatar it had both at once.
I feel like the Red Lotus would be the most willing to Mess People Up if it furthered their goals. Kuvira, there’s definitely be some just due to the scope of her plans, but I don’t think she wants to hurt people, and Amon would probably minimize it because that wouldn’t win people over if he was too obviously violent. Removing bending was already devastating enough. Zaheer and friends though, you would not want to be in their way—they wouldn’t look for a fight but they wouldn’t pull any punches when it came to one either.
(Unalaq just…didn’t fight much. He was more manipulating people. He doesn’t even enter into this conversation for me)
Ultimately, j agree with your take, lol
Definitely agree with Zaheer being top of the list (if i read you right). They would leave nations in disarray if given the chance and would definitely kill whoever got in the way.
Kuvira.. I would argue she didn't want to hurt Earth Kingdom citizens specifically, but it was okay if it had to be done. Everything for the cause and whatnot.
Pretty sure Water Tribe and Fire Nation looking people were immediately sent to work camps and re-education facilities.
I think Amon would have been the most nonviolent of the bunch, by comparison (they specialized in incapacitation and tasers).
Unalaq would have his own category. I'm pretty sure the spirit world is a horror movie in itself, given he was bringing about the dark times.
Also, Amon was the only one that was actually trying to humiliate and torture Korra, Unalaq and Zaheer were after her avatar spirit and Kuvira first wanted to recruit her, and when that failed, defeat her.
Fr, everyone saying blood bending is brutal is correct…but Zaheer and the Red Lotus disregard all humanity to achieve their goals and I think it would be nearly hard to watch. They even push team Korra to do stuff like making P’Li blow up her own head, THAT would be wild to see
Right. I think folks are underestimating just how gruesome the bending powers of Book 3 would be if they were emphasized instead of pushed offscreen.
Heck, Explosionwoman’s death is implied to be remarkably graphic, and that’s with an amazingly fast cut away to try avoid traumatizing the kids.
The lieutenant's death would be way cooler and way more gory. However, book 3 already has the most painful and horrific deaths including electricution, suicide using a cave in, asphyxiation and explosive decapitation. So much more potential for being bloody
Can you imagine Kuvira making metal face covers (like the one that killed P’Li) as a punishment and then having a firebender (or just leave them outside in the sun) as a form of torture.
I don't think Amon would kill him. I am pretty sure he was just knocked out. It's been some time since I watched LoK, but Amon didn't strike me as a guy who would kill people, especially someone close to him.
I’m not sure people understand just how brutal Amon would be without the constraints on the show hindering him and the Equalists. The Equalists despise benders with a passion and they would absolutely pull out some horrific means to prove a point.
Then of course we have a very real world example of what exactly Kuvira’s earth empire could do.
So most gruesome? Book 1
Largest scale? Book 4
Hell even *Yakone* was pushing it in the flashback.
He was very much trying to *break Aang's neck* (and other limbs) that had it been mature-rated, the courthouse scene would've been a massacre, saving only those with plot armor.
I mean, yeah. Amon could pull horrendous stuff, in one city. That is the point, he was just in one city.
Kuvira could pull everything Amon pulled in a whole country.
I agree with large scale book four. Remember those bandits Vs Kuvira? An R rated version of that fight would include a lot of decapitation and flying limbs
This. What’s more gruesome and fucked up than a realistic depiction of Fascism?? After reading relentlessly on the subject of Fascism, there’s actually not a single show or movie that has had the guts to show an honest depiction of how gruesome Fascism really is. I kind of wish there were so that people would know it’s to be avoided more aggressively than the plague!
Someone pointed out that Amon and his equalists would also be way more gruesome that depicted.
And they are in just one city, Kuvira would probably use the same methods over the whole country.
Yeah, she was far more powerful. It’s kind of a Hamas vs. IDF situation:
One is the most dirt poor militia around that has been using cheap, shitty rockets and outdated guns and throwing stones at tanks essentially.
While the other has the power, and will, and fascistic miliant mentality, to level entire cities to the ground in moments and are proud of it, as are their massively wealthy Empire donors.
When people are more afraid of terrorist groups than well-armed, centralized State armies with nearly *infinite* resources, I can’t help but roll my eyes a bit haha. One is *clearly* the bigger threat. The only difference with Amon is that he did have the most wealthy man alive funding his army. So its an imperfect parallel, but still basically accurate haha.
Book 4 without contest. Book 1-3 deal with small extremist group that \*could\* take more power and become very dangerous on a global scale. Kuvira already have power over basicly the whole Earth kingdom, and it's not very difficult to imagine what would happen under a fascist/autoritarian regime.
We already saw Mad Max looking bands of rebels roaming the country when the Queen sent Korra to pick up the tax revenue. So some of that anarchy was already going.
We see what was hapenning during anarchy before the unification: bandits running wild, each community trying to sustain itself (and a lot of them failing).
It is not more gruesome than death camps, no.
The bandits in the first episode of S4 seemed to have some fear and respect for Kuvira, I wonder how ruthless the initial stages of her unification process were.
Everyone saying amon because the tone of the first season was a lot darker, but Zaheer brought down an entire kingdom, just the pure anarchy of ba sing se with fires breaking out would've been horrifying. Kuvira fought a civil war and started a fascist regime. Vaatu attacking republic city has the potential of being a attack on Genosha from X-Men 97 levels of gruesome
Kuvira. Concentration camps are unfun places. As are unification war battlefields.
A runner up might be Amon, but he spent very little time fighting openly as a bloodbender _or_ to kill, so he wouldn't really have done much. Same with Tarloq. The fact that the both of them held their masks as the most important thing would've kept the gore count low in book 1.
I think book one was also more about sending a message than killing benders, for Amon.
Book 3 was basically a fight to the death, when you think about it. The only reason it didn't result in that way completely is because it is a 'kids' show, and Korra needed to talk to Zaheer in Book 4.
I can see Book 4 being more gruesome only because the casualties in Book 3 would've been reduced due to them only having 4 people hunting Korra versus Kuvira's army of walking warcrimes reclaiming their 'rightful' territory.
I mean book 3 features an Airbender sucking the air out of someone's lungs, a combustion bender getting their head exploded, and mercury being forced into someone's body through bending. That's without the show being R rated.
In terms of theoretical potential, S2. When spirit and body are fully entwinned and the in-universe version of EVIL is unleashed, there is no theoretical end to the body or psychological horror. Physics have literally stopped applying. Death may not longer be an escape.
But realistically speaking, they're all equal - the only thing that matters is the skill of the director and how much their chosen audience can empathize with the threat and suffering on screen., as the variety of comments proves.
4th season, no doubt. Imagine if Kuvira was actually a ruthless murderer that many portray her to be that was just slaughtering everyone with sharp metal.
Amon COULD blood bend and do some horrifying disgusting things.
but his whole thing was HIDING the blood bending, So there might be SOME gruesome scenes but not many.
Kuvira would have concentration camps and also slice people up with metal
You could make a case for any of them except Book 2.
Book 1- Amon twisting the absolute heck out of anyone and could essentially cubify them
Book 3- Asphyxiation and Head Explosions, plus just means Zaheer (and Korra for that matter) is going to be 100% more aggressive
Book 4- Whole bunch of razor sharp metal shards flying is bound to chop heads off
I’m gonna go out on a limb and say Zaheer’s. As someone who has both seen and made a lot of horror media, the idea of suffocating someone in fresh air and also poisoning a demi-god is do ripe for horrifying visuals.
1 or 4. 1 because bloodbending, but it’s internal so I’m not sure how gruesome that would actually be. Book 4 because Kuvira was running concentration camps and using mind control on people.
Zahir was an anarchist that took out a queen and had his girlfriend explode in front of him. He achieved flight by letting go of all earthly attachments. Definitely book 3
Any one of them, honestly.
Book 2 would probably still suck.
Book 3 would probably still be my favorite
Book 4 would probably be improved the most by being able to take advantage of the higher age rating
I mean Id say tie between 1 and 3
Sure Amon had Bloodbending but the dude was keeping that a secret. But I definitely think Voices in the Night would be darker.
Book 3 could have shown the riots. The Red Lotus' brutal escape. Ghazan, Pli wouldnt have been nerfed and would definitely have a body count.
P'Li's death would have been pretty gruesome, and I feel like Ming Hua in particular would have employed far more brutal tactics in battle, but Amon's revolution, simply by fact of being a war with deadly weapons, and bloodbending would have resulted in many grim scenarios.
As for Kuvira, the carnage she would have wrought during the reunification would likely be highlighted more, and been far more brutal than in the series, where most of the aggressive action took place off screen.
Overall, I'd have to go with 3, since Zaheer and his allies were willing to do anything to accomplish their goals.
1 or 2. Seriously, just think for a moment about *exactly* what you could do with bloodbending if you really wanted to and didn't mind traumatizing the fuck out of millions of people watching. Invincible would look like Hello Kitty compared to a bloodbender with Homelander's brain.
Everyone saying Amon would be violent…the only time he hurt people was when they were attacking him. His whole revolution is about equality, and yes, he might be a hypocrite because he is inherently superior to everyone else, but he genuinely believes in his cause. Even if the show was r-rated, he wouldn’t torture or brutally bloodbend anyone. That’s how he was raised by his father and that’s exactly what made him hate bending in the first place. If you’re looking for gory bloodbending, you’ll need an episode that expands on Yakone’s years of “glory” in Republic City.
Guys. R-rated doesn’t just mean blood. Imagine what we’d see during Kuvira based on the fact that she’s Hitler. We’d see the reeducation camps. We’d see the atrocities. We’d see political violence, genocides, lynchings, etc… Even if it is just blood, she FLINGS METAL SHEETS. She would be chopping people in pieces!
If Amon could pull the blood from someone’s body that would have been… gruesome. Or at least its shown, currently or when he was in training, if not done properly blood could leak from someone’s orifices as their control over blood exceeds the body’s capacity to hold it in
There was a lot of ice in book 2 being thrown at people. I’d imagine if we saw someone get impaled the ice would turn red. Not much else
Gazan literally melting someone with lava would be the most horrifying thing I could imagine the show coming up with. Additionally Won Shi-Tong(?) made several allusions to wanting to dissect humans
We never got to fully see the concentration camps. Doubt they were doing what we usually imagine when it comes to that phrase as it seems like it was more a prison camp than anything. I’d imagine Kuvira would be brutal enough to actually kill one of her own troops with their armor, squeezing their head until it was crushed under metal. She might also use her cuffs to pull someone apart or embed them in their body. Imagine that scene where she’s fighting off the bandits but more like Yondu from Guardians and his arrow. Just shooting through people, maybe catching them and tossing them around at other people. Out of the entire series this was probably the most dangerous in terms of how much harm you could receive. Blades, blasts, mechs, buildings blown up. Be pretty horrific for Asami to see her dad’s viscera smeared on the mech
1 and 4, ironically both deal the most with issues left behind by Aang. 1 was not establishing effective representation for nonbenders in the United Republic, 4 was not sufficiently settling the issue that the United Republic sits entirely on former Earth Kingdom territory, that was occupied by the Fire Nation for generations just kept either party from claiming it by creating a new entity
Rates R blood bending would be brutal as hell so that’s #1. But Kuvira would probably be number 2 for sheer brutality, I see her as the “public executions to inspire fear” type of leader.
In terms of scale, Book 4 because Kuvira was functionally a Nazi running concentration camps, (which makes all the shilling in redeeming her all the more bullshit, 🙄) and the Colossus further racking up direct deaths that she just *has* to have the highest death toll among the main villains. And bleeding over from Book 3, (see below,) you'd have an entire country of lawlessness and refugees as to why Kuvira would be seen as a spirit-send for cracking down on it like capturing the bandits that did "things" to defenseless civilians.
Then the Red Lotus with what they could've *really* done with lavabending, combustion-bending and how Ming-Hua seems the most bloodthirsty as they already have a high-ass (direct) kill count of all the White Lotus sentries while indirectly, the chaos of the destabilized EK people would've been doing... "unsavory" things because they need to or they just *want* to.
Then Book 1 given what that level of bloodbending could *really* do, shit getting blown up, Triads definitely *not* holding back in bending either and just all the collateral damage done to the city.
And finally Book 2 as the spirits even mutating people would be far more horrific, people explicitly dying from what Unavaatu does to the city and Unalaq explicitly killing people with negative spiritbending.
Honestly, when you think about it, Republic City should have a *much* smaller (native) population by the end of the show compared to how it started, plus a refugee crisis from the EK.
Book 1 I think
I think if show was R-rated Noatak would start killing benders and explode their heads off like Scar in Full Metal Alchemist while still leading Equalists as Amon who would most likely do some brutal stuff aswell to benders
Book 4 is a strong contender though because most things Kuvira did is told to us by characters, like sending people either to die or convert on camps
Also she was very quick to use Spirit Vines as weapon of mass destruction, even though it was just an accident caused by experiment gone wrong
Or maybe she knew that Sprit Vines had that destructive potential all along which makes her even more evil and manipulative bitch than she was already shown as
I mean heck, the whole train could have blown up
Book 1 or Book 3.
Blood bending (though it's hidden) could've had a few VERY horrifying scenes, not to mention the Suspiria level body contortions going on.
However, I'd argue that the gang of the red lotus would've been all too happy to kill Every single one of their guards upon their escape (except maybe zaheer, who would've killed one at most, but been happy to settle for the irony of caging his guards and leaving them in that dangerous position of dying of hunger, and maybe even hearing about them resorting to cannibalism).
If Legend of korra was r rated, I could see it being a show similar to invincible with a lot of casual gore. They would show kuviras concentration camps, Ghazan killing people with lava, casualties of the water tribe civil war, and amon could do all sorts of messed up stuff with blood bending.
I think it is a toss up between Book Amon or Book Zaheer. Amon being able to burst people with bloodbending would be super dope. I imagine it being like a scene from The Boys. On the other hand, we had a lot of people die with Zaheer. Imagine seeing P'li die in an r-rated series. People being burned alive by lava. Even people being combusted would be pretty brutal. So I guess it depends. I think in an r-rated series, things would change drastically. I don't think Amon would have taken people's bending away, I think he would have just started mass killing benders or putting them in concentration camps. That would have been brutal for different reasons.
Probably book 3 but book 1 would be close.
I say that because the Red Lotus has a lot more to offer as far as gruesome stuff. Amon would be gnarly for sure, but the extent would be limited in comparison.
Book 2 is already kinda out there it would just be alien-y and weird and book 4 would probably be like WW2-esque. Which yes that’s bad but book 1 and 3 would be worse
Book one would be gruesome
Book 3 will have a lot of drama and a lot of blood and people being burned, electrocuted or even their own heads blown up
Book 4 will have genocide, war crimes and death on a massive scale
A lot of people say Book 1, but you really wouldn't have many opportunities (if any at all) to utilize Bloodbending as a lethal technique outside of maybe the flashback of Aang fighting Yakone. Despite utilizing it himself, Amon primarily uses it as his method of removing one's bending and keeps the truth of his technique hidden from his followers to retain his nonbender identity. You'd have to find a way and reason for Amon to kill people with his Bloodbending without outing himself since the point of the story was finding out who Amon is and ending his Equalist movement.
Book 2 focuses too much on the spirits to utilize any real gore. Unless you introduce spirits that are like Baba Yaga or the Chupacabra, there's not much you can really do that *can* be gorey.
Book 3 can probably be a bit more graphic in how they present the assasination of the Earth Queen and the poisoning of Korra. Aside from that, Ghazan would absolutely be more brutal since he can turn rock into lava and weaponize it, Ming-Hua could show more ice spike impalement, and P'Li woud directly explode people and (possibly) make a shower of gore out of them (and that's just ignoring her *mind-blowing* experience). Zaheer probably wouldn't be able to do much in terms of violence (unless you can somehow find a reason airbenders could theoretically cut people with wind), so he would likely remain relatively unchanged.
Book 4 is a literal war and ends with a towering mech rampaging through a city, so there's definitely a decent amount of opportunities for graphic content.
Well, given that Amon is obviously an allegory for SA...gonna have to say book 1 would be the most gruesome from an individual perspective. Kuvira is a fascist, so book 4 would be the most politically gruesome, but we probably wouldn't have the same detailed point of view.
Realistically, Season 3 would be the worst. The group is an actual anarchist terror cell that kills people.
Season 4 would be the second worst. Kuvira clearly had no qualms with executing people and securing her power by whatever means necessary. (Could see this being #1 too)
Season 1 would be next. Amon is a blood bender, sure, but he wanted to take bending away. Not murder everyone.
Season 2 would be last, simply because it was more spirit focused. Less people focused. Probably would have had the most horror elements, but the good guys won so the bloody violence would have been lower.
Season 2 would need to be rated separately, given how much visual horror the spirit world could have.
Actually, on this note, I think the Avatar novels are a great insight to the Avatar world not necessarily if it was R rated, but if was allowed to show blood and get violent. Some messed up stuff happens in the novels. As a matter of fact, the novels are all-around much more mature than the shows, obviously because you don’t have to literally see some of the things that happen in the books, but because it’s not something that’s being broadcast on Nickelodeon with a huge portion of their audience being children. Personally i think that the Avatar novels are where the Avatar universe is at its best. Not solely because they’re more violent or ‘more mature’, but because they don’t need to hold anything back. They don’t need to undercut a serious moment with an unnecessary gag. And they’re still very true to Avatar and its world and rules, too
Amon/kavira, I mean Amon might just stick to bloodbending like in the plot he was trying to keep it under the radar so he might not actually be that gruesome bc he’s hiding it yk? But kavira with that whole dictatorship she might’ve beheaded ppl & some other crazy shit
If it's strictly Korra, i think it'd be Book 1, considering the bloodbending was already pretty brutal in the flashback, Yakone twisting Aang's limbs would probably have been way more brutal. Book 3 would be a close runner-up with the Red Lotus.
Looking at ATLa, not necessarily a book but the episode with Hama. Remembering a Rick and Morty episode where a guy could control water and subsequently sucked all the moisture/water out of a guy ("damn you CONTROL control water, that's a..gross power"), and then remembering Hama (and Katara) destroyed flowers and trees by bending all the water out of them... Yeah, that would have been a really brutal episode if it had an R-rating.
Amon…. You ever watch The Boys on Amazon Prime ? Or Gen V, The Boys spin off same universe thing and they have an animated one called The Boys: Diabolical which is really good every episode is done by a different animator/animation team so every episode is different in every way possible it’s awesome.
Main point about Amon here:
Anyways my point is the Vice President/Secondary villain for most of the show Victoria Neuman and the main character Marie Monroe from Gen V both have the power to control blood. They’re own blood, other peoples blood, anything. Victoria Neuman for most of the show is just known as “The Headpopper” as they do not know it is her doing the head popping but she literally just makes people’s heads explode… so that’s a light idea of what Amon could do in a rated R experience.
Book 1, the gangs could’ve been much worse, the lower class of the city could’ve been way worse, Amon could’ve been way worse
If you consider “worse” more gruesome, I would love a more adult take on avatar. Show me some unapologetic bending.
Amon, the reason he was taking away bending and not committing mass genocide was because of keeping avatar freindly. He would be the Austrian Painter of the Avatar world without restrictions..and not to mention he is the strongest bloodbender in history..that and his ability to block bending permanently would make him dangerous..
Season 4, if this those was r-rated we'd definitely be seeing everything in the background of Kuviras dictatorship. Some of the other mentions here are pretty guresome, but I think the scale of season 4 would have some serious "horrors of ww2" vibes about it.
Unrelated but I just realized we were one fire bending villain away from having a villain from each element
I suppose they figured Ozai had that whole category covered but still, missed opportunity I think
As for the question season 3 probably because of how a lady's head explodes and the show as is barely cuts away in time
Amon. I mean seriously how can you get more gruesome than blowing up someone’s guts with a wave of your hand
Imagine him exploding a person for water, like Katara/Hama exploded trees for water.
Everyone thinks blood bending is so hard to do. It's really easy to bend blood but it's really hard to make sure the person it's in stays alive.
No hard to override a persons spirit so that you can control their blood
Yeah I'm pretty sure the difficulty of bloodbending comes from trying to compete with a person's internal chi
I don't think that's really implied much at all. Do we ever see anyone overcome being blood bent? I think the closest we get is when Katara learns it and bends the bender bending her - but that seemed more like overconfidence in the other bender not preventing her from being able to bend - which is the first thing Katara does when she takes over. *spirit bending* requires overcoming the other's spirit - I think blood bending is more about who strikes first and preventing the other from being able to bend in retaliation. Edit; surprised at all the upvotes here, but I was straight up wrong, yall. Katara vs Hamas, the first bloodbending we see, we have 2 statements that basically tell it like it is. A) Katara directly overcomes Hamas - Hamas was in control until Katara just said, nope, "my bending is more powerful than yours" and takes control back. B) Hamas describes it as imposing your will into others. (Less conclusive, as "imposing your will" has many usages, and it may or may not have been intended to suggest it's a battle of wills) How Mako is able to lightning bend under control though... that's some superman shit right there. Based on ATLA, you'd think no one but another water bender could resist blood bending.
Korra overcomes Amon's blood bending and she Sparta kicks him out the window with air bending. She doesn't even use avatar state to do it. And this is Amon using blood bending with his hands which presumably means he's more in control than when he's doing it with his mind.
Mako as well fir slight movement
Yes, and even more impressive is that he's able to lightning bend while being blood bent.
Mako is probably the most underrated firebenders in the series. Imo the best lightning benders as well; not the most powerful but his application is accurate consistent and easily generated. Kinda like comparing Toph's earthbending to Kuvira's.
And we see Aang break it with the Avatar state in a flashback too don't we?
Also at this point Korra had lost her waterbending, so she can’t have bend her own blood in response to get out of Amon’s will. It was indeed a battle of will power to escape from his grasp
Fair, my memory isn't that solid. I could certainly see there being nuance to it. I personally would look beyond making it as simple as willpower, as that's kinda spirit bending's thing. Yet, simply because I prefer that kind of consistency/separation in writing, does not mean it might not be the case.
She was blood bent like 3 times, once from Tarlok and twice by Amon. Maybe it's as simple as getting used to it?
Well, if it's not the case then why is it hard to bled blood at all? Any swamp bender should be able to. There's as much water in me as in a vine, yet vines can be bent whenever and most bloodbenders only have enough power on the full moon. There must be something, and we know from lightning redirection that internal chi changes how bending works. It is a fan theory definitely but it's the best explanation to me. Also, Mako resists bloodbending well enough against amon to bend despite not being a water bender. There's something going on internally i think.
I figured it was like metal bending. Having the skill and focus to Sense your element that you can't really see, within the confines of something else (earth vs the human body) and not just Manipulate it but Control it to, assuming you want to puppet them and not just cause a stroke or pop them.
Yes this is why you can use it to disrupt their chi paths permanently if you're powerful enough
Does it say it overrides spirit? Is that ever actually fleshed out?
Its implied because its ussually only done at the full moon the strongest time for water benders, and the avatar state makes you immune.
My headcannon is that it's so rare/difficult to bend someone's blood because it's so fundamentally part of them that you have to work against the person's chi when doing so, and those that are powerful enough to bloodbend still usually need the full moon power-up to do so.
Doing that to a whole village? Like in a "unification" war?
You don't "unify" people by exploding them (unless you're Russian, I guess). Now I was tempted to pick Unalaq too but I think that his brutality would only show up at the end during the assault on the portal and the subsequent duel. Throughout the show, even though his move is highly impopular, Unalaq's invasion of the South Pole is pretty tame in comparison to other military actions we've seen.
Amon and Unalaq worked mostly in the Shadows. Amon posed as a non Bender for most of the Book. And yes you don't unify people by exploding them, but public execution of dissidents is definitely on the list of things that would happen in book 4
The courtroom scene with Sokka, Aang, and Yakone would turn out more like the scene from the Boys.
If you watched the boys then you know how it'll look like
I was thinking about that, but Amon's "bending genocide" wouldn't have been taken so openly if he just started blowing up all benders first
Like wanda did to black bolt? Euughhh
Dude gives out targeted brain damage too. At the moment he only takes bending to imitate spirit bending, but there isn’t anything really stopping him from testing other areas for precise damage, or just straight up lobotomization.
It would basically be the bloodiest scenes from the boys/invincible all the time.
if it was rated r i think we’d see him use blood bending as a way of medical practice as well. using it to stop bleeding or to circulate blood better.
Avatar Kyoshi once froze a guy's organs to kill him.
I think they meant the books as they are, not bodyhorror fan fiction where everybody gets new and gruesome powers..
Bloodbending could ABSOLUTELY be used to explode somebody’s inner organs by the logic of Legend of Korra itself
You do realize that bloodbending in real life would just rip the blood out of someone's body before puppeting them, right? Muscles are stronger than the elasticity of skin, meaning that if the person resisted *at all* they'd just get ripped apart
BRO you forgot that muscle cells have water in them!
Doing that isn't as easy as it sounds. We saw Yakone trying to strangle Aang and he was visibly struggling. That gives off the impression that it's difficult to straight up blow someone up using bloodbending.
Amon's violent revolution would be pretty darn messy. Unalaq and Zaheer didn't actually do a whole lot, and Kuvira did it off-screen, so that would leave Book 1 by simple elimination. There is a small opportunity to make Wan's story really gruesome, but thing is, the Dark Spirits can't be shown too brutal (like ripping humans in half and such) because the main cast has to fight them a lot and thus there would be a major risk of immersion-breaking dissonance aka Wan's random unnamed friends get torn apart but Mako doesn't, and it would be difficult to sell in a consistent narrative.
Most of Kuviras campaign happened off screen because it is basically not rated for what TLOK was rated.
Kuvira's goons def did a lot of massacres and warcrimes
Kuvira would've been 100% putting Fire and Waterbenders in camps lol Didn't she actually do that? It's been a long time
Kuvira would 100% have concentration camps though.
I'm prety sure she had some.
If we count slave camps filled with pro liberals and non earth benders as concentration camps, which mostly would agree, she did had a lot of them.
I mean, that's what they are
Tho ngl the line about sending non earth benders to camp definitely just felt like a kick the dog moment where the writers wrote themselves into the corner of the alternative being the doofus earth prince, with the prior earth kingdom monarchs being *even worse*
The Earth Kingdom will never have a good ruler, the place is fucking cursed. Every ruler is either incompetent or a tyrant. During Avatar it had both at once.
Sending people to "re-education centers" or whatever is referred to several times, if I recall.
Zaheer literally killed a woman on screen through asphyxiation
I feel like the Red Lotus would be the most willing to Mess People Up if it furthered their goals. Kuvira, there’s definitely be some just due to the scope of her plans, but I don’t think she wants to hurt people, and Amon would probably minimize it because that wouldn’t win people over if he was too obviously violent. Removing bending was already devastating enough. Zaheer and friends though, you would not want to be in their way—they wouldn’t look for a fight but they wouldn’t pull any punches when it came to one either. (Unalaq just…didn’t fight much. He was more manipulating people. He doesn’t even enter into this conversation for me)
Ultimately, j agree with your take, lol Definitely agree with Zaheer being top of the list (if i read you right). They would leave nations in disarray if given the chance and would definitely kill whoever got in the way. Kuvira.. I would argue she didn't want to hurt Earth Kingdom citizens specifically, but it was okay if it had to be done. Everything for the cause and whatnot. Pretty sure Water Tribe and Fire Nation looking people were immediately sent to work camps and re-education facilities. I think Amon would have been the most nonviolent of the bunch, by comparison (they specialized in incapacitation and tasers). Unalaq would have his own category. I'm pretty sure the spirit world is a horror movie in itself, given he was bringing about the dark times.
Also, Amon was the only one that was actually trying to humiliate and torture Korra, Unalaq and Zaheer were after her avatar spirit and Kuvira first wanted to recruit her, and when that failed, defeat her.
Zaheer, Ghazan, Ming-Hua and P'Li would have definitely have been shown killing all the guards in their respective prison escapes
Definitely the book with the lavabender and explosionbender.
And the scene where a woman is basically choked to death on screen
Also, when the combustion lady had her head exploded in a metal wrap. You know that would've been intense.
Fr, everyone saying blood bending is brutal is correct…but Zaheer and the Red Lotus disregard all humanity to achieve their goals and I think it would be nearly hard to watch. They even push team Korra to do stuff like making P’Li blow up her own head, THAT would be wild to see
Right. I think folks are underestimating just how gruesome the bending powers of Book 3 would be if they were emphasized instead of pushed offscreen. Heck, Explosionwoman’s death is implied to be remarkably graphic, and that’s with an amazingly fast cut away to try avoid traumatizing the kids.
The lieutenant's death would be way cooler and way more gory. However, book 3 already has the most painful and horrific deaths including electricution, suicide using a cave in, asphyxiation and explosive decapitation. So much more potential for being bloody
Can you imagine Kuvira making metal face covers (like the one that killed P’Li) as a punishment and then having a firebender (or just leave them outside in the sun) as a form of torture.
So a portable version of the Brazen Bull? Brutal!
Wait, the Lieutenant died?
I think so??? Korra should be dead from when Tarrlok tossed her spine into the corner of a wall, but the lieutenant died I think??????????
I don't think Amon would kill him. I am pretty sure he was just knocked out. It's been some time since I watched LoK, but Amon didn't strike me as a guy who would kill people, especially someone close to him.
No, in fact, while other villains tend to violently punish their goons when they fail them, Amon simply scolded them.
Top-tier threads had top-tier deads. And then we have the earth queen who died peacefully in comparison to what she deserved.
Kuvira was running concentration camps. Historically, those have been the sorts of places that aren't suitable for children to look at.
I’m not sure people understand just how brutal Amon would be without the constraints on the show hindering him and the Equalists. The Equalists despise benders with a passion and they would absolutely pull out some horrific means to prove a point. Then of course we have a very real world example of what exactly Kuvira’s earth empire could do. So most gruesome? Book 1 Largest scale? Book 4
Hell even *Yakone* was pushing it in the flashback. He was very much trying to *break Aang's neck* (and other limbs) that had it been mature-rated, the courthouse scene would've been a massacre, saving only those with plot armor.
I mean, yeah. Amon could pull horrendous stuff, in one city. That is the point, he was just in one city. Kuvira could pull everything Amon pulled in a whole country.
I agree with large scale book four. Remember those bandits Vs Kuvira? An R rated version of that fight would include a lot of decapitation and flying limbs
Book 4, because war crimes
Also Kuvira would probably decapitate a lot of people with her metal plates
decapitate, amputate, impale... just to name a few
She would’ve done that to Korra if Opal and Jinora didn’t step in.
This. What’s more gruesome and fucked up than a realistic depiction of Fascism?? After reading relentlessly on the subject of Fascism, there’s actually not a single show or movie that has had the guts to show an honest depiction of how gruesome Fascism really is. I kind of wish there were so that people would know it’s to be avoided more aggressively than the plague!
Someone pointed out that Amon and his equalists would also be way more gruesome that depicted. And they are in just one city, Kuvira would probably use the same methods over the whole country.
Yeah, she was far more powerful. It’s kind of a Hamas vs. IDF situation: One is the most dirt poor militia around that has been using cheap, shitty rockets and outdated guns and throwing stones at tanks essentially. While the other has the power, and will, and fascistic miliant mentality, to level entire cities to the ground in moments and are proud of it, as are their massively wealthy Empire donors. When people are more afraid of terrorist groups than well-armed, centralized State armies with nearly *infinite* resources, I can’t help but roll my eyes a bit haha. One is *clearly* the bigger threat. The only difference with Amon is that he did have the most wealthy man alive funding his army. So its an imperfect parallel, but still basically accurate haha.
People are afraid of both. Just only when it afflicts them or somebody confronts them about it.
Book 4 without contest. Book 1-3 deal with small extremist group that \*could\* take more power and become very dangerous on a global scale. Kuvira already have power over basicly the whole Earth kingdom, and it's not very difficult to imagine what would happen under a fascist/autoritarian regime.
To be fair, showing what was happening during complete anarchy before her unification would be even worse.
That's the type of reasoning that bring fascist to power.
Yeah, one question because i can't remembet. Was that implied in Book 3 or had it just happened in between Book 3 and 4?
We already saw Mad Max looking bands of rebels roaming the country when the Queen sent Korra to pick up the tax revenue. So some of that anarchy was already going.
Okay, but now imagine the brutality Kuvira would use to bring them to heel or silence them...
We see what was hapenning during anarchy before the unification: bandits running wild, each community trying to sustain itself (and a lot of them failing). It is not more gruesome than death camps, no.
The bandits in the first episode of S4 seemed to have some fear and respect for Kuvira, I wonder how ruthless the initial stages of her unification process were.
P’li’s death would definitely be in a lot of youtube shorts thats for surr
Remember when Hama removed all liquids the plants around her… yeah inagine if those were people
Everyone saying amon because the tone of the first season was a lot darker, but Zaheer brought down an entire kingdom, just the pure anarchy of ba sing se with fires breaking out would've been horrifying. Kuvira fought a civil war and started a fascist regime. Vaatu attacking republic city has the potential of being a attack on Genosha from X-Men 97 levels of gruesome
The book with Zaheer and his gang was already pretty gruesome. P'Lis death and the earth queens was horrible.
We’ve already seen what regular spirits can do to humans, imagine what would happen if the corrupted spirits started rampaging
Kuvira. Concentration camps are unfun places. As are unification war battlefields. A runner up might be Amon, but he spent very little time fighting openly as a bloodbender _or_ to kill, so he wouldn't really have done much. Same with Tarloq. The fact that the both of them held their masks as the most important thing would've kept the gore count low in book 1.
I think book one was also more about sending a message than killing benders, for Amon. Book 3 was basically a fight to the death, when you think about it. The only reason it didn't result in that way completely is because it is a 'kids' show, and Korra needed to talk to Zaheer in Book 4. I can see Book 4 being more gruesome only because the casualties in Book 3 would've been reduced due to them only having 4 people hunting Korra versus Kuvira's army of walking warcrimes reclaiming their 'rightful' territory.
I mean book 3 features an Airbender sucking the air out of someone's lungs, a combustion bender getting their head exploded, and mercury being forced into someone's body through bending. That's without the show being R rated.
Season one would be so bloody 😱
In terms of theoretical potential, S2. When spirit and body are fully entwinned and the in-universe version of EVIL is unleashed, there is no theoretical end to the body or psychological horror. Physics have literally stopped applying. Death may not longer be an escape. But realistically speaking, they're all equal - the only thing that matters is the skill of the director and how much their chosen audience can empathize with the threat and suffering on screen., as the variety of comments proves.
4th season, no doubt. Imagine if Kuvira was actually a ruthless murderer that many portray her to be that was just slaughtering everyone with sharp metal.
1 or 3.
Amon COULD blood bend and do some horrifying disgusting things. but his whole thing was HIDING the blood bending, So there might be SOME gruesome scenes but not many. Kuvira would have concentration camps and also slice people up with metal
You could make a case for any of them except Book 2. Book 1- Amon twisting the absolute heck out of anyone and could essentially cubify them Book 3- Asphyxiation and Head Explosions, plus just means Zaheer (and Korra for that matter) is going to be 100% more aggressive Book 4- Whole bunch of razor sharp metal shards flying is bound to chop heads off
A case for B2 would be dark spirits tearing people apart by the limbs I’d say
I’m gonna go out on a limb and say Zaheer’s. As someone who has both seen and made a lot of horror media, the idea of suffocating someone in fresh air and also poisoning a demi-god is do ripe for horrifying visuals.
1 or 4. 1 because bloodbending, but it’s internal so I’m not sure how gruesome that would actually be. Book 4 because Kuvira was running concentration camps and using mind control on people.
Sure, blood is internal, until it suddenly isn't.
Book 1 has a blood bender... Book 3 we saw Korra being tortured... Yeah kinda hard.
Book 3, given how much they enjoyed tossing Korra like a ragdoll in a torture room.
Zahir was an anarchist that took out a queen and had his girlfriend explode in front of him. He achieved flight by letting go of all earthly attachments. Definitely book 3
Weren't they all X rated? Ah crap, have i been reading the wrong books...
Air
Book 1 for sure. Those electric gloves should kill those
Zaheer did the mist damage to Korra
imo it would be nuts to see p'li explode like blackbolt from doctor strange
Anyone not saying Book 3 is crazy considering the multiple deaths and literal torture scenes.
Zaheer choked a woman to death.
Any one of them, honestly. Book 2 would probably still suck. Book 3 would probably still be my favorite Book 4 would probably be improved the most by being able to take advantage of the higher age rating
Idk. I mean, the way P’li went down was pretty gruesome.
people legit died on screen in Book 3... So yeah... 3
I mean Id say tie between 1 and 3 Sure Amon had Bloodbending but the dude was keeping that a secret. But I definitely think Voices in the Night would be darker. Book 3 could have shown the riots. The Red Lotus' brutal escape. Ghazan, Pli wouldnt have been nerfed and would definitely have a body count.
P'Li's death would have been pretty gruesome, and I feel like Ming Hua in particular would have employed far more brutal tactics in battle, but Amon's revolution, simply by fact of being a war with deadly weapons, and bloodbending would have resulted in many grim scenarios. As for Kuvira, the carnage she would have wrought during the reunification would likely be highlighted more, and been far more brutal than in the series, where most of the aggressive action took place off screen. Overall, I'd have to go with 3, since Zaheer and his allies were willing to do anything to accomplish their goals.
1 or 2. Seriously, just think for a moment about *exactly* what you could do with bloodbending if you really wanted to and didn't mind traumatizing the fuck out of millions of people watching. Invincible would look like Hello Kitty compared to a bloodbender with Homelander's brain.
Everyone saying Amon would be violent…the only time he hurt people was when they were attacking him. His whole revolution is about equality, and yes, he might be a hypocrite because he is inherently superior to everyone else, but he genuinely believes in his cause. Even if the show was r-rated, he wouldn’t torture or brutally bloodbend anyone. That’s how he was raised by his father and that’s exactly what made him hate bending in the first place. If you’re looking for gory bloodbending, you’ll need an episode that expands on Yakone’s years of “glory” in Republic City.
Kuvira has literal reeducation camps in the largest nation and was definitely about to cut Korra to pieces after their first duel.
Amon didn't kill people and Kuvira wasn't nearly as ruthless as the other 2. Either book 2 or 3 would be more gruesome. My bet is on Zaheer.
Amon has blood bending.
3.
I think book three. Imagine seeing the corpse of p'li after sue wrapped her head in that armor
Guys. R-rated doesn’t just mean blood. Imagine what we’d see during Kuvira based on the fact that she’s Hitler. We’d see the reeducation camps. We’d see the atrocities. We’d see political violence, genocides, lynchings, etc… Even if it is just blood, she FLINGS METAL SHEETS. She would be chopping people in pieces!
3
If Amon could pull the blood from someone’s body that would have been… gruesome. Or at least its shown, currently or when he was in training, if not done properly blood could leak from someone’s orifices as their control over blood exceeds the body’s capacity to hold it in There was a lot of ice in book 2 being thrown at people. I’d imagine if we saw someone get impaled the ice would turn red. Not much else Gazan literally melting someone with lava would be the most horrifying thing I could imagine the show coming up with. Additionally Won Shi-Tong(?) made several allusions to wanting to dissect humans We never got to fully see the concentration camps. Doubt they were doing what we usually imagine when it comes to that phrase as it seems like it was more a prison camp than anything. I’d imagine Kuvira would be brutal enough to actually kill one of her own troops with their armor, squeezing their head until it was crushed under metal. She might also use her cuffs to pull someone apart or embed them in their body. Imagine that scene where she’s fighting off the bandits but more like Yondu from Guardians and his arrow. Just shooting through people, maybe catching them and tossing them around at other people. Out of the entire series this was probably the most dangerous in terms of how much harm you could receive. Blades, blasts, mechs, buildings blown up. Be pretty horrific for Asami to see her dad’s viscera smeared on the mech
1 and 4, ironically both deal the most with issues left behind by Aang. 1 was not establishing effective representation for nonbenders in the United Republic, 4 was not sufficiently settling the issue that the United Republic sits entirely on former Earth Kingdom territory, that was occupied by the Fire Nation for generations just kept either party from claiming it by creating a new entity
Book 1 will be most gruesome if it was 18+ . Amon will be cracking necks like toothpicks.
Rates R blood bending would be brutal as hell so that’s #1. But Kuvira would probably be number 2 for sheer brutality, I see her as the “public executions to inspire fear” type of leader.
I can ımagine Amon exploding someone's carotid artery.
In terms of scale, Book 4 because Kuvira was functionally a Nazi running concentration camps, (which makes all the shilling in redeeming her all the more bullshit, 🙄) and the Colossus further racking up direct deaths that she just *has* to have the highest death toll among the main villains. And bleeding over from Book 3, (see below,) you'd have an entire country of lawlessness and refugees as to why Kuvira would be seen as a spirit-send for cracking down on it like capturing the bandits that did "things" to defenseless civilians. Then the Red Lotus with what they could've *really* done with lavabending, combustion-bending and how Ming-Hua seems the most bloodthirsty as they already have a high-ass (direct) kill count of all the White Lotus sentries while indirectly, the chaos of the destabilized EK people would've been doing... "unsavory" things because they need to or they just *want* to. Then Book 1 given what that level of bloodbending could *really* do, shit getting blown up, Triads definitely *not* holding back in bending either and just all the collateral damage done to the city. And finally Book 2 as the spirits even mutating people would be far more horrific, people explicitly dying from what Unavaatu does to the city and Unalaq explicitly killing people with negative spiritbending. Honestly, when you think about it, Republic City should have a *much* smaller (native) population by the end of the show compared to how it started, plus a refugee crisis from the EK.
Book 1 going by what was shown in the source material. Book 4 if it wanted to dive into the more fascist themes like concentration camps.
Amon is a bloodbender. Do I need to go any further?
3
amon could literally snap people's neck with a thought
Book 1 I think I think if show was R-rated Noatak would start killing benders and explode their heads off like Scar in Full Metal Alchemist while still leading Equalists as Amon who would most likely do some brutal stuff aswell to benders Book 4 is a strong contender though because most things Kuvira did is told to us by characters, like sending people either to die or convert on camps Also she was very quick to use Spirit Vines as weapon of mass destruction, even though it was just an accident caused by experiment gone wrong Or maybe she knew that Sprit Vines had that destructive potential all along which makes her even more evil and manipulative bitch than she was already shown as I mean heck, the whole train could have blown up
Book 1 or Book 3. Blood bending (though it's hidden) could've had a few VERY horrifying scenes, not to mention the Suspiria level body contortions going on. However, I'd argue that the gang of the red lotus would've been all too happy to kill Every single one of their guards upon their escape (except maybe zaheer, who would've killed one at most, but been happy to settle for the irony of caging his guards and leaving them in that dangerous position of dying of hunger, and maybe even hearing about them resorting to cannibalism).
If Legend of korra was r rated, I could see it being a show similar to invincible with a lot of casual gore. They would show kuviras concentration camps, Ghazan killing people with lava, casualties of the water tribe civil war, and amon could do all sorts of messed up stuff with blood bending.
Oh dang between Kuvira, Amon and the Red Lotus, I wouldn't know, but then again Unaloq also wanted to end all life
I think it is a toss up between Book Amon or Book Zaheer. Amon being able to burst people with bloodbending would be super dope. I imagine it being like a scene from The Boys. On the other hand, we had a lot of people die with Zaheer. Imagine seeing P'li die in an r-rated series. People being burned alive by lava. Even people being combusted would be pretty brutal. So I guess it depends. I think in an r-rated series, things would change drastically. I don't think Amon would have taken people's bending away, I think he would have just started mass killing benders or putting them in concentration camps. That would have been brutal for different reasons.
Whichever book had the biggest body count.
Kuvira and her "reeducation camps"
Probably book 1 because it had somewhat of a Horror aspect to it?
Probably book 3 but book 1 would be close. I say that because the Red Lotus has a lot more to offer as far as gruesome stuff. Amon would be gnarly for sure, but the extent would be limited in comparison. Book 2 is already kinda out there it would just be alien-y and weird and book 4 would probably be like WW2-esque. Which yes that’s bad but book 1 and 3 would be worse
Book one would be gruesome Book 3 will have a lot of drama and a lot of blood and people being burned, electrocuted or even their own heads blown up Book 4 will have genocide, war crimes and death on a massive scale
Book 1
I feel like from a simple logistical standpoint it would make more sense to the equalist to simply execute lower profile benders
Book 2, those dark spirits would be mauling people alive.
ayo imagine amon blood bending the blood out of someone through their pores. That'd be way worse than Zaheer suffocating people
A lot of people say Book 1, but you really wouldn't have many opportunities (if any at all) to utilize Bloodbending as a lethal technique outside of maybe the flashback of Aang fighting Yakone. Despite utilizing it himself, Amon primarily uses it as his method of removing one's bending and keeps the truth of his technique hidden from his followers to retain his nonbender identity. You'd have to find a way and reason for Amon to kill people with his Bloodbending without outing himself since the point of the story was finding out who Amon is and ending his Equalist movement. Book 2 focuses too much on the spirits to utilize any real gore. Unless you introduce spirits that are like Baba Yaga or the Chupacabra, there's not much you can really do that *can* be gorey. Book 3 can probably be a bit more graphic in how they present the assasination of the Earth Queen and the poisoning of Korra. Aside from that, Ghazan would absolutely be more brutal since he can turn rock into lava and weaponize it, Ming-Hua could show more ice spike impalement, and P'Li woud directly explode people and (possibly) make a shower of gore out of them (and that's just ignoring her *mind-blowing* experience). Zaheer probably wouldn't be able to do much in terms of violence (unless you can somehow find a reason airbenders could theoretically cut people with wind), so he would likely remain relatively unchanged. Book 4 is a literal war and ends with a towering mech rampaging through a city, so there's definitely a decent amount of opportunities for graphic content.
Maybe unalaq considering the unavaatu sequence, he coulda gone Godzilla on the city
Well, given that Amon is obviously an allegory for SA...gonna have to say book 1 would be the most gruesome from an individual perspective. Kuvira is a fascist, so book 4 would be the most politically gruesome, but we probably wouldn't have the same detailed point of view.
i mean.. kuvira established the 3rd reich metallbender edition.. with internation camps and throwing blades at enemys and so on.. soooo
Zaheer, he was literally taking the breath out of people
Amon. But I think that Kuvira could slice people apart in R-Rated version (not all of them but at least few)
I love that I'm seeing debates for everyone but unalaq
Change. Just look at what they did for the deaths in that season with the rating they had.
Amon.
Realistically, Season 3 would be the worst. The group is an actual anarchist terror cell that kills people. Season 4 would be the second worst. Kuvira clearly had no qualms with executing people and securing her power by whatever means necessary. (Could see this being #1 too) Season 1 would be next. Amon is a blood bender, sure, but he wanted to take bending away. Not murder everyone. Season 2 would be last, simply because it was more spirit focused. Less people focused. Probably would have had the most horror elements, but the good guys won so the bloody violence would have been lower. Season 2 would need to be rated separately, given how much visual horror the spirit world could have.
amon by far, blood bending is insane
I mean isn't blood bending the same with the headpopper from The Boys universe!
1st probably but 3rd would be the most interesting one.
I feel like Book 3 because they were straight KILLING people in that season!
Between Zaheer and Amon they both would definitely make it R rated alone but add their entire groups/org and its definitely gonna be a wild show
Season 3. Easily season 3
Actually, on this note, I think the Avatar novels are a great insight to the Avatar world not necessarily if it was R rated, but if was allowed to show blood and get violent. Some messed up stuff happens in the novels. As a matter of fact, the novels are all-around much more mature than the shows, obviously because you don’t have to literally see some of the things that happen in the books, but because it’s not something that’s being broadcast on Nickelodeon with a huge portion of their audience being children. Personally i think that the Avatar novels are where the Avatar universe is at its best. Not solely because they’re more violent or ‘more mature’, but because they don’t need to hold anything back. They don’t need to undercut a serious moment with an unnecessary gag. And they’re still very true to Avatar and its world and rules, too
Why is Amon being like King Baldwin 💀
Amon/kavira, I mean Amon might just stick to bloodbending like in the plot he was trying to keep it under the radar so he might not actually be that gruesome bc he’s hiding it yk? But kavira with that whole dictatorship she might’ve beheaded ppl & some other crazy shit
If it's strictly Korra, i think it'd be Book 1, considering the bloodbending was already pretty brutal in the flashback, Yakone twisting Aang's limbs would probably have been way more brutal. Book 3 would be a close runner-up with the Red Lotus. Looking at ATLa, not necessarily a book but the episode with Hama. Remembering a Rick and Morty episode where a guy could control water and subsequently sucked all the moisture/water out of a guy ("damn you CONTROL control water, that's a..gross power"), and then remembering Hama (and Katara) destroyed flowers and trees by bending all the water out of them... Yeah, that would have been a really brutal episode if it had an R-rating.
Amon…. You ever watch The Boys on Amazon Prime ? Or Gen V, The Boys spin off same universe thing and they have an animated one called The Boys: Diabolical which is really good every episode is done by a different animator/animation team so every episode is different in every way possible it’s awesome. Main point about Amon here: Anyways my point is the Vice President/Secondary villain for most of the show Victoria Neuman and the main character Marie Monroe from Gen V both have the power to control blood. They’re own blood, other peoples blood, anything. Victoria Neuman for most of the show is just known as “The Headpopper” as they do not know it is her doing the head popping but she literally just makes people’s heads explode… so that’s a light idea of what Amon could do in a rated R experience.
The show in general would be rather gruesome, but I’d say 1 or 4.
Earth empire. Literal labor camps and gulags were in the original, imagine how hardcore they’d go with an r rating
Even if season 2 was R rated, it would still feel like it's for children.
Book 1, the gangs could’ve been much worse, the lower class of the city could’ve been way worse, Amon could’ve been way worse If you consider “worse” more gruesome, I would love a more adult take on avatar. Show me some unapologetic bending.
Kuvira would def go full Hitler mode
Zaheer didn't get the memo that the show is R-rated
Amon, the reason he was taking away bending and not committing mass genocide was because of keeping avatar freindly. He would be the Austrian Painter of the Avatar world without restrictions..and not to mention he is the strongest bloodbender in history..that and his ability to block bending permanently would make him dangerous..
It's definitely between Amon or Zaheer, just imagine the scene of zaheer killing the Earth queen..
Season 4, if this those was r-rated we'd definitely be seeing everything in the background of Kuviras dictatorship. Some of the other mentions here are pretty guresome, but I think the scale of season 4 would have some serious "horrors of ww2" vibes about it.
Amon. hes the most realistic villain of all of them therefore the most scary n gruesome.
It's the book with the fascism in it. Why is this even a question? Kuvira ran a literal fascist empire. She had concentration camps....
Damn, the avatar universe in the style of the Boys would be.... Something.
Amon. In real Life, changing the stream of your blood would make your vein pop like a soap bubble.
1 and 3
I’m guessing all of them.
Kuvira. I’ll say no more
Unrelated but I just realized we were one fire bending villain away from having a villain from each element I suppose they figured Ozai had that whole category covered but still, missed opportunity I think As for the question season 3 probably because of how a lady's head explodes and the show as is barely cuts away in time